What do Chernobyl, Halley’s Comet, Mike Tyson, shoulder pads, Magnum P.I., and every artist on this playlist have in common? They were all what’s happening in 1986. So, now you know. And knowing is half the battle.

Nine years ago today, Madonna’s tenth studio release debuted at the top of the UK Albums Chart, making it her ninth chart-topper across the pond and her fifth in a row.

The critical reception to Madonna’s previous studio album, 2003’s American Life, was predominantly less than positive: the majority of critics viewed it as a well-intentioned attempt to expand into new territory that didn’t entirely succeed. This may or may not have had anything to do with the decision to get back to more familiar ground – as we all know, Madonna’s gonna do what Madonna’s gonna do, no matter what anyone else says – but whatever her reasons for delivering a full-fledged dance floor spectacular, the end result was well received by both critics and the record-buying public.

12 years ago today, Madonna released the title song to the 20th film in the long-running James Bond franchise…or the 22nd if you count the original 1967 version of Casino Royale and 1983’s Never Say Never Again. (We know some of you do count those, so we figured we’d better acknowledge their existence.)

It’s hardly shocking that the Bond folks were interested in having Madonna take a shot at doing a title song, given that A) she’s Madonna, and B) she’d had a considerable amount of success with her contributions to other soundtracks, including “This Used to Be My Playground (A League of Their Own), “I’ll Remember” (With Honors), “Beautiful Stranger” (Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me), and – to a decidedly lesser extent – her cover of Don McLean’s “American Pie” (The Next Best Thing).

Madonna herself was somewhat less certain about signing on, however, explaining to Larry King that she “hemmed and hawed about it for a while because…everybody wants to do the theme song of a James Bond movie, and I never liked to do what everybody else likes to do. It's just some perverse thing in me, right? So, but then I thought about it and I said, ‘You know what? James Bond needs to get techno, so...”

22 years ago today, Madonna hit the top of the Billboard Hot 100 with a song which, despite serving as the theme song for A League of Their Own (even if licensing restrictions ultimately kept it off the soundtrack), has continued a slow slide into semi-obscurity for reasons which we’ll get into a minute.

“This Used To Be My Playground” was a co-write between Madonna, Shep Pettibone, and – although he’s not actually credited on the track – Tony Shimkin, who also had a hand in composing seven of the 14 songs on Madonna’s 1992 album, Erotica, including the singles “Deeper and Deeper,” “Bad Girl,” and the title track. (Not coincidentally, “Playground” was written and recorded just before the completion of Erotica.)

29 years ago today, Madonna released what would prove to be the final single from her Like a Virgin album, and while some at the time might’ve argued that it was merely a case of milking the last ounce of commercial worth out of the seven-month-old album, Sire Records got the last laugh when the song went on to be the singer’s sixth consecutive top-five single in America.

Written by Andrea LaRusso and Peggy Stanziale, “Dress You Up” was the last track to be included on Like a Virgin, and it almost didn’t make the cut at all, as LaRusso and Stanziale – who had other projects going on at the time and clearly had no way of knowing how huge the album would ultimately end up being – took longer than intended to finish the lyrics. Although producer Nile Rodgers was ready to set the song aside, Madonna liked the lyrics and pressed for the song’s inclusion.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, former Warner Bros. Records executive and industry insider Stan Cornyn ruminates on the past, present, and future of the music business.

1981-86

Seymour Stein, the talent-eager executive who’d run his Sire Records label alongside Warner Bros. Records for what seemed like decades, was bedded down in a NY hospital this week in ‘81. Heart surgery recovery. Knock-knock on the door.

In came one of his young Sire fellows who were hired to be out in the clubs, night after night ‘til 2 in the morning, hunting new talent. The fellow, Michael Rosenblatt, brought Seymour a tape he’d been given the night before by the Danceteria Club’s disco re-mixer/DJ, Mark Kamins.

Kamins had made the demo for a single-named young singer with evolving hair colors. She and her boyfriend, drummer Stephen Bray, had formed a band named Emmy. Off nights, she hung out at Danceteria, hoping for some break for a career. There, her tape was handed from Kamins to Michael Rosenblatt. Kamins suggested Rosenblatt set up a meeting between Seymour Stein and this girl.

On this day in 1986, Madonna's "True Blue" single went to #1 on the UK singles chart. "True Blue" was the title for both the single and the album, which was a favorite expression of her then husband Sean Penn.